A Country Doctor

Koji Yamamura's experimental animated short film A Country Doctor (2007) is an adaptation of Franz Kafka's short story of the same name. Adapting Kafka is often problematic because it is nigh impossible to portray the peculiarities of Kafka's prose onscreen. Yamamura succeeds quite well by using weird techniques like distorting the characters throughout the film and the art design is sketchy and creepy. The absurd and delusional story is certainly interesting, but in the end the short film is not superb. It's "only" very good.

Score: 8 out of 10

PS: It's uploaded on YouTube in three parts.

Kamikaze Girls

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Tetsuya Nakashima's Kamikaze Girls (2004) is even crazier than the vague title suggests: the story focuses on Momoko (played by Kyoko Fukada) is a girl obsessed with Lolita fashion and Rococo. She lives with her "useless" (as she describes him herself) father and totally bonkers grandmother. Eventually she meets and becomes friends with Anna Tsuchiya's Ichigo who is a true yanki girl: blunt, violent and rebellious.

Let's face it, the idea of putting a yanki and a lolita together is absurd - and the film makes the most of it while it maintains its farcical and metafictional phase. However, at some point the film begins to take itself seriously and simply falls flat because there is simply no way it could possibly work. Luckily the climax is funny, though. I appreciate the film's pure spontaneity and wild humor so greatly that I have to admit I enjoyed watching the film. It's a shame Nakashima changed the tone of the film in the later half because it makes the characters frustratingly pseudo-complex instead of being great comic relief.

The film's form is sadly messy: while its costume design and cinematography provide a lot to the silly atmosphere, the form becomes too formless in the end and it's only baffling. The editing is erratic in a way that doesn't really fit to the content. It is overstylized without a formal focus.

Kamikaze Girls is a funny but shamefully unbalanced and a bit flimsy film. It's worth watching if you're looking for the absurdities of contemporary Japanese cinema or if you simply want to laugh - a lot. Just be prepared for the change of tone.

Score: 5 out of 10

Sukiyaki Western Django

No matter how you try to describe it, Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) will always sounds silly - because the film is utterly silly as well. It is a Japanese western which - at the same time - both pokes fun at the entire genre and works as a respectful tribute for the genre. Combine that with Miike who chooses the extremely absurd and tongue-in-cheek way to approach the story. Initially, the film's story is very similar to Kurosawa's Yojimbo (the story of which was altered for Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars as well): a skilled gunman gets mixed up with two warring clans who are looking for a treasure. The peculiarness can be spotted from the get-go, but at some point the story spirals out of control and - in a way - turns into something that is really hard to describe for someone who has not seen the film.

Sukiyaki Western Django is too funny to be taken seriously at any point - even though it seems to take itself seriously at a few points. It doesnt really have a lot to say about anything, it's simply BONKERS. The whole cast speaks their line in English (with only one line spoken in Japanese) only because it sounds funny. However, the joke doesnt remain funny throughout the film and becomes a little dry and weary by the end of the film. Luckily Miike's playful form makes the film somewhat funny: bright colors, silly Dutch angles and wild editing. The explosive and ridiculously complicated finale was a pleasant surprise after the unevenness that the rest of film suffers from. Quentin Tarantino's small role is a nice addition to the film, but it is forgettable in the end.

Sadly, Miike does not succeed in controlling his absurdity, unlike in Visitor Q and Ichi the Killer. He loses himself into poking fun at everything and the messy narrative. He isnt even able to craft unforgettable characters in this film. There are a few moments of true brilliance and the form is fine most of the time, but ultimately the film is more or less a mess. It is too self-aware for its own good.

Score: 5 out of 10